New WASPI update with Labour 'reviewing' DWP payouts worth £2,950

New WASPI update with Labour 'reviewing' DWP payouts worth £2,950

by · Birmingham Live

A WASPI compensation update has been issued to women who are fighting for Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) payments worth up to £2,950. Campaigners are hoping to get payouts after the Ombudsman report was published over historic injustices earlier this year.

The Labour Party government has been asked if there will be a "future fiscal event" to finally deliver compensation for the women. Liberal Democrats MP Susan Murray asked recently in the Commons if "compensation proposals will form part of a future fiscal event".

Pensions minister Emma Reynolds told her: "I was the first Minister in eight years to meet the WASPI campaign group and listen to their concerns. We need time to review and consider the Ombudsman’s report along with the evidence provided during the investigation.

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"Once this work has been undertaken, the Government will be in a position to outline its approach." Labour MP Ian Byrne also spoke out earlier this week, seeking a response on behalf of the millions who are believed to have been impacted.

He has called on the Government to establish a compensation scheme for affected women by February 2025. Byrne asked the Government minister: "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman entitled Women’s state pension age: our findings on injustice and associated issues, published on 21 March 2024, HC 638, if she will establish a compensation scheme for affected women by February 5, 2025."

"We are reviewing the Ombudsman's report along with the evidence provided during the investigation," Ms Reynolds said. The minister added that the government needs to consider "views that have been expressed on all sides" before outlining its approach.

The statement comes after the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) determined earlier this year that women born in the 1950s could be entitled to compensation payments.